


Face of(f) the Enemy

by schneefink



Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: Captivity, Gen, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-02
Updated: 2017-03-02
Packaged: 2018-09-27 21:28:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10051208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/schneefink/pseuds/schneefink
Summary: Tiye opened her eyes and saw her own face look back at her, with a curious, detached expression like the one a large predator might wear when regarding a strange but irrelevant bug.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Unbeta-ed idfic, written for the h/c bingo February amnesty challenge. I blame araline for the title.
> 
> This is based on the D&D game I play with friends (3.5 with homebrew elements.) I started it after session 34, and as of 36 it has already been thoroughly jossed. 
> 
> Content notes at the end.

The door to the cell opened, but Tiye allowed herself to keep her eyes closed for two more seconds. At the beginning she hadn't wanted to look at whoever entered, but it had quickly become apparent that this small gesture of defiance wasn't worth the resulting pain. After the first few days she'd also instinctively pressed her back against the wall whenever someone entered, so they'd shortened the chain between her handcuffs and the hook in the center of the ceiling. Now she couldn't reach the walls anymore and her back was always exposed. She spent most of her time right below the hook, where the chain almost reached the ground.

It had been three days since she had seen or heard anything except the stone walls of the Citadel. She was almost glad for the diversion, any diversion, even though who- or whatever just entered the cell almost certainly had nothing good in mind.

Two seconds passed. Tiye opened her eyes and saw her own face look back at her, with a curious, detached expression like the one a large predator might wear when regarding a strange but irrelevant bug. 

She stumbled to her feet and jerked back as far as she could. 

"The similarity was not exaggerated," Capability said, walking steadily closer. "You really do look like an exact replica of me." She came to a stop in front of Tiye and cocked her head. "Did the Citadel find out what kind of stone you are made of yet?" 

"Why don't you ask them? Since you're apparently friends now." Tiye tried to sound unconcerned about that potential alliance, though judging by the smirk on Capability's face she didn't succeed. If the Citadel and the god Heironeous were indeed working together, her friends' chances of victory or even survival were frighteningly small.

The Citadel opposed the gods' authority, and they'd already killed one. An alliance seemed more than implausible. Tiye wondered if "Capability" was an illusion, but she had no idea why the Citadel would use one like this.

It looked just enough like herself that it was unsettling, though the differences were stark. The person in front of her was flesh and blood, with brown hair and eyes, a small scar on her cheek, and eyelashes. Tiye had seen Capability through a Scrying mirror, but never this close, and never focused on her. 

"Special circumstances," Capability – if it was indeed her – said dismissively. Her look wandered over Tiye's whole body. "It's interesting that you're a spellcaster. I wonder if it was on purpose."

Tiye didn't reply. After many days in the cell her nakedness didn't bother her anymore, but Capability's gaze still felt uncomfortably intimate. Every other interrogator so far had been taller than her, probably to intimidate her, but ironically her counterpart being the same size made her seem more immediately threatening. There was much less of a chance of being overlooked or underestimated by someone of the same size.

Capability took a step to the side like she wanted to walk around her, and Tiye stepped to the other side and turned to keep looking at her. 

Capability's whip snapped forward and hit Tiye in the back of her knees. Tiye lost her balance and fell forward. She got up quickly, but the chain attached to her handcuffs suddenly pulled upwards and Tiye stumbled forward until she stood almost under the hook, her hands in front of her face. Finally the chain came to a stop, and Tiye heard Capability attach the other end to the second hook on the wall. 

The whip hit her again, curling around her legs this time and yanking. Tiye fell to her knees again, and the chain pulled her arms high above her head.

For the thousandth time during these last few days Tiye wished for her magic. She'd fantasized often about attacking her captors, about smashing her cell and burning down the entire Citadel, and she wished very intensely to be able to reach out and hurt Capability. It had been terrifying to wake up in the cell in rune-covered handcuffs and unable to feel her magic when she reached for it, unable to even feel her familiars. From the first moment when her magic had burst out of her and saved her life, only minutes after she'd awoken, it had always been there for her. Having it locked away made her feel constrained, incomplete, vulnerable. Compared to that, having to kneel was only a minor annoyance.

"Better," Capability said approvingly. She stepped in front of Tiye. "Now tell me. Who made you?"

With a perverse kind of injured pride Tiye wondered if Capability really expected her to answer her question just like that. The Citadel had interrogated her for days with the help of pain and potions and telepathy and mind control.

Capability indeed only nodded as if she'd expected the silence. "They told me you heal," she said. She drew her sword and cut off Tiye's hands.

For a moment Tiye's mind was blank. Her arms weren't being pulled up anymore and she fell back on her heels, the stumps of her arms falling in her lap. Then the pain hit and she cried out and curled forward.

Get it together, Tiye told herself with grit teeth. Ignore the pain. It's just stone, you don't even have any nerves, and you're free from the cuffs. Get it together, she thought, and concentrated on stoking the pain and rage and fear in her chest until it coalesced into a bright heat. With a cry she straightened and along her crippled arm sent a burst of fire at Capability. 

Almost casually, Capability deflected the fire with her sword. With the ease of a skilled soldier she stepped around Tiye and pushed her to the floor, pressing a knee into her back. More flames sprung up alongside Tiye's arms, but only moments later they disappeared when a metal collar snapped shut around her neck. 

"Interesting," Capability said mildly. Tiye managed to turn her head and saw that Capability was staring at her arms. 

The cuts felt like they were burning. But they were already healing, new stone slowly forming along the edges. Relief made her feel light-headed. She'd never lost limbs before and she hadn't been sure they would re-grow, especially not with her magic locked away.

Then dread trickled in as she thought of what else Capability might do, either to hurt her or simply to experiment. 

As if echoing her thoughts, Capability said: "I wonder how much of you I could cut off before you stop regenerating. Is your center in your head, or where in normal people the heart would be? Do you know?"

Tiye shuddered.

"They told me they found an acid that works quite well," Capability continued. "I wasn't even sure if you could feel pain. Why would someone deliberately build in a disadvantage like that? Strange."

Every time when someone had looked at her with apprehension, Tiye had assumed it was because of her familiars. People often found Sal unsettling, and Nera could be terrifying even without trying. Now she wondered if sometimes it was also because of herself, if she sometimes looked like Capability did then: as if she was coldly thinking about the most efficient way to remove an obstacle in her way, and she would stop at nothing. It wasn't a good thought.

Tiye could feel pain, even though logic said a statue shouldn't; but pain didn't make her weak. Capability was a halfling, but Tiye only looked like one. She was injured and her magic bound, but she was still strong, and she was no longer chained. Even if she failed to overpower Capability, she didn't have anything to lose. She tensed in anticipation.

"Still, you seem stubborn. So I convinced the Citadel that additional pressure is necessary. Sorcerers have such interesting weak spots." Capability placed a small roundish thing on Tiye's back.

A wave of dizziness washed over Tiye. It felt as if a non-existent heart was beating too quickly in her chest, and she started gasping for air she didn't need. Her thoughts slowed down and her body was growing heavy and cold. It didn't quite feel like her body anymore, it didn't fit her, she didn't know it but it was in pain. She seemed to have too many unfamiliar limbs, and there was something strange on her back.

This must be sickness, Tiye thought. It had never affected her before. Strange.

"They said you should feel it even better than normal," Capability said, satisfaction in her voice, and abruptly Tiye realized what was happening. 

"Sal," she whispered. She'd thought, she'd hoped that he'd gotten away, comforting herself with the thought that if the Citadel had indeed captured her familiars they'd tell her right away, if only to gloat. But it was clearly Sal she was feeling, and he was not well. Usually she had no problem separating her familiars' emotions from her own, but whatever Capability had put on her amplified what she received through the bond until she struggled to keep the sensations apart. Sal was in pain and confused, and in addition to suffering from several physical wounds his mind felt cloudy, as if he'd been drugged. 

She tried calling out to him and reaching for him through the bond, but he gave no indication of having noticed her.

"They were working on it for a while," Capability said, "but in the end it's just a stupid beetle. Its wounds got infected. If it's not healed it probably won't survive another day." 

She took the item away and the connection disappeared again. Much of the pain faded, but not knowing what was happening to Sal was worse. Tiye wanted to clench her hands into fists, but instead her cut arms spasmed and burned. 

"So let's try this again. Who created you?" 

Sal needed help. She would have to appear cooperative enough that Capability thought it would be beneficial to heal Sal to keep her that way. After that… Getting out would be more difficult now that she had to get Sal too, especially because he was injured.

She refused to think about Nera. Her cat familiar must have gotten away. 

"Heironeous," she said.

"Lie," Capability hissed immediately. She smashed Tiye's head against the floor hard and then sprang up.

At least the outburst probably proved that she was dealing with the real Capability. Tiye waited a few moments before she dared to sit up. Capability stood in front of her, her sword extended toward Tiye's neck, and Tiye eyed it cautiously. Capability's sword was most likely intelligent, like Bravery's had been, and she wasn't sure how much it influenced its wielder, or to what effect.

"It's the truth. Don't you have a truth spell active?" 

"Truth spells can be deceived."

"Not on a power level you should have access to." Tiye attempted to stand up, but Capability lifted her sword in a threatening manner and she sat down again. "It's the truth. Heironeous created me."

Of course it had been the Heironeous of a different timeline, and it had happened after the god's death, but if Capability was confused or unsettled Tiye considered that a plus. She didn't think Heironeous' Principles knew about the time travel ritual that had created the new timeline, and that Tiye had been involved in performing the ritual. 

"Where do you come from?" Capability demanded next.

"I come from a different world." It was even true, in a way. And occasionally people did slip through the dimension bubble and appeared in this world out of nowhere. A group of five stone versions of Heironeous' highest representatives would be enormously unlikely, but probably not completely impossible.

Capability briefly paused at that. "Not that it matters," she then said conversationally. "Lord Heironeous will destroy you, your friends, and every one of the Lady Rose's followers. This is just personal curiosity." 

"If there's anything left of you after the fight against the Lady Rose, the Citadel will gladly mop up the remains. I'm sure they're ecstatic." 

Capability stabbed her in the stomach for that. 

A wild impulse grabbed her, and Tiye threw herself forward, impaling herself further. It's not real pain, she told herself right before it hit, and then she screamed. 

The sword jerked to the side, cutting her open, and Tiye fell to the ground.

"You're crazy," Capability said flatly. 

Maybe, but she was also too weak to talk. Capability clearly had more questions, and she'd have to wait until she was healed and probably stay at the Citadel during that time. Sal would have to be treated in that time if they wanted to keep holding him over her head, and it would give Nera and her friends more time for any plan they had.

Capability hissed in displeasure. She stepped away, and the cell door swung shut.

Tiye closed her eyes. It became harder to hold onto her thoughts. Capability's face stuck in her mind, looking cruel. Did she ever look like that? Were they similar in any way apart from their looks? 

Her arms and her midsection felt like they were immersed in acid. The collar around her neck was cold. But she wasn't wearing the cuffs anymore. Maybe, when her hands had regrown, she could break the collar open. Get her magic back. Rescue Sal. Destroy this whole damn place and escape.

And then she would hunt down Capability. She'd look at that all too similar face and enjoy blasting it to pieces. She'd never have to look at it again. 

Tiye almost smiled as she lost consciousness.

**Author's Note:**

> Content notes: several forms of torture, (temporary) loss of limbs, self-harm, wound infection


End file.
